Whoopi Goldberg Addresses Suspension From ABC’s The View Over Holocaust Comments: “We’re Going To Keep Having Tough Conversations”
A few weeks ago, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg made some inflammatory comments on the morning talk show, trivialising the events of the Holocaust by claiming it was not about race because it involved “two white groups of people.”
“If you are going to do this then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race,” said Goldberg two weeks ago while discussing the removal of the graphic novel Maus from a Tennessee school district’s curriculum. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about.”
It was at this point that co-host Ana Navarro interjected, saying, “But it’s about white supremacy.”
“That’s what it’s about,” Navarro continued. “It’s about going after Jews and Gypsies.”
In response, Goldberg pushed back, ““But these are two groups of white people!”
“You’re missing the point,” she told Navarro. “The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white because black, white, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other.”
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Later that day, Goldberg took to social media to issue a statement regarding the controversial comments she had made on The View, attempting to explain what she meant and reassuring her followers that she has always supported the Jewish people.
“On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both,” she wrote. “As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected.”
“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt caused. Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg,” she concluded.
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ABC News President Kim Godwin then took near immediate action to the backlash against Goldberg, announcing a couple of days later that The View host was being suspended for two weeks “for her wrong and hurtful comments.”
“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” declared Godwin. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
Returning to The View on Monday, Goldberg addressed her tone-deaf and tacky Holocaust comments as soon as the show began.
“Well, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to ‘The View,’ and yes, I am back,” said an ecstatic Goldberg. “I got to tell you, there’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this because we are ‘The View,’ and this is what we do.”
She went on, “Sometimes we don’t do it as elegantly as we could. It’s five minutes to get in important information about topics, and that’s what we try to do every day. I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away.”
“I’m telling you people reached out from places that made me go, ‘Wait, wait, what? really?’” she told the audience. “And it was amazing, and I listened to everything everybody had to say, and I was very grateful, and I hope it keeps all the important conversations happening because we’re going to keep having tough conversations.”
“And in part, because this is what we have been hired to do, and it’s not always pretty, as I said,” the talk show host further elaborated. “It’s not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important.”
Goldberg ultimately asserted that these types of conversations are “important to us as a nation and to us more so as a human entity.”
What do you make of Goldberg’s addressing of her suspension from The View? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below or on social media.
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